The 3 Amigos – A Project Management Idea That Wins

When I take on a project, I describe my Management Team and me as the ‘3 Amigos’. I consider the ‘3 Amigos’ to be the Project Manager (1), the person on the Project that I have appointed as the Technical Director or the technical lead(2) and a Project Support Officer (3).

Although I have successfully managed some really huge technical Projects in my life. I do not come from a technical background. I have had lots of different jobs since I started working in aerospace as a messenger. And my college degree is in Business. I’m not saying that I can’t understand technical issues but I do not have the experience necessary to really dig into the technical aspects of some Projects. And, by the way, I am not all that interested. Hence, I assign a person in charge of the technical aspects of the project.

When I was assigned to manage my first Project, I obviously took the job even though I didn’t have a technical background and the Project was a highly technical one. So what did I do? I worked out a plan that showed that I needed some hotshot technical people. They were assigned to me and I made one of them my Technical Lead. Her name was Rebecca and she was just great. Her job was to spend all of her time on technical issues and brief me on the various options associated with them. My lack of technical experience didn’t keep me from being smart enough to understand the issues. My job was to consider not only the technical issues but also the ramifications around cost, schedule and other resources and to make the decisions. It worked just great and it was on that Project, early in my career, that I realised that by appointing a Technical Lead who understood the technical issues associated with the Project, I could manage any Project. I am not a civil engineer but I know that I can build a bridge or a building. I would hire the best Civil Engineer that I could find and put her in charge of the technical aspects of the project. I believe that a really good Project Manager with a really good Technical Director can take on almost, if not every, type of Project and deliver it.

The 3^rd person in the ‘3 Amigos’ is the Project Support Officer who either manages a Project Support Office (if the Project is big enough) or is the Project Support Office (if the Project is not big enough to have a Project Support Office Team). This person is responsible for supporting the rest of the Project Team and me in the areas of Project Planning and Control, Configuration Management, including Change Control, Risk and Issue Management, Action Item Administration, Documentation Management and other areas.

I believe in the ‘3 Amigos’ concept and I will never run a Project without my other 2 Amigos. And you should consider not doing it without your other 2 Amigos also.

Enjoy the Journey,

Richard

Richard Morreale is a professional speaker, author, trainer, and c-suite consultant specializing in Program and Project Management, Change Management and Success Strategies. For more information or to book Richard as a speaker email him at richard@richardmorreale.com or ring him at 336 598 2793.

The Cookie Thief by Valerie Cox

Have you ever thought you were right – I mean absolutely knew you were right without a doubt – only to find out eventually that you were wrong. Recently, my glasses broke and I asked my wife, Linda, if she had seen them as I know that she uses them sometimes. Well, she said that she hadn’t used them recently and she had given them to me the last time she used them so that I could put them somewhere safe. Somewhere that I could find them when I needed them. Well, I knew she was wrong. I just knew that she had misplaced them. I got a little angry and told her that her memory was failing her in her old age (she’s just 54).  Not a good thing to say. But anyway, she said she had given them to me and that was that. Well, you know the end of this story, don’t you? I found them in a drawer in the living room. Right where I had put them so that I wouldn’t forget where they were if I ever needed them. Now, I’m not going to say something foolish like,  I found them in the last place I looked. Anyway this is just one of many stories that I could tell you about being wrong when I knew, without a doubt, I was right. I bet you have a few stories you could tell me.

I discovered this poem a few years ago on a Dr Wayne Dyer Program. I really like it. Thought you might like it too.

A woman was waiting at an airport one night
With several long hours before her flight
She hunted for a book in the airport shop
Bought a bag of cookies and found a place to drop

She was engrossed in her book but happened to see
That the man beside her as bold as could be
Grabbed a cookie or two from the bag between
Which she tried to ignore to avoid a scene

She munched cookies and watched the clock
As this gutsy cookie thief diminished her stock
She was getting more irritated as the minutes ticked by
Thinking “If I wasn’t so nice I’d blacken his eye”

With each cookie she took he took one too
And when only one was left she wondered what he’d do
With a smile on his face and a nervous laugh
He took the last cookie and broke it in half

He offered her half as he ate the other
She snatched it from him and thought “Oh brother
This guy has some nerve and he’s also rude
Why he didn’t even show any gratitude”

She had never known when she had been so galled
And sighed with relief when her flight was called
She gathered her belongings and headed for the gate
Refusing to look back at the thieving ingrate

She boarded the plane and sank in her seat
Then sought her book which was almost complete
As she reached in her baggage she gasped with surprise
There was her bag of cookies in front of her eyes

“If mine are here” she moaned with despair
“Then the others were his and he tried to share”
“Too late to apologize she realized with grief”
That she was the rude one, the ingrate, the thief

Enjoy the Journey,

Richard

Richard Morreale is a professional speaker, author, trainer, and c-suite consultant specializing in Program and Project Management, Change Management and Success Strategies. For more information or to book Richard as a speaker email him at richard@richardmorreale.com or ring him at 336 598 2793.

Direct the Project With a Project Board

There are going to be plenty of times during a Project when you, the Project Manager, will have difficulties that you will not be able to overcome on your own and you will need help from senior management. So, as a Project Manager, I feel it is important to have someone or some group you can turn to when you need help to get something done either in the client’s, the user’s or the developer’s organisation.

For this reason I believe it is of utmost importance that you establish, specifically for your Project, a Project Board or a Project Steering Committee or whatever it is that you want to call it. The important thing is that you make sure, in whatever way you can, you get the right people assigned to this group. As a minimum, you should have a senior representative from the developer’s organisation, a senior representative from the client’s organisation and a senior representative from the organisation that is going to actually use what you and your Team are delivering. You need to also make sure that a Project Sponsor is part of this group.

These representatives must not only be at a level sufficient enough in their particular area that they can make decisions for that area of the organisation but they must also be able to make things happen when you need things to happen. They need to be able to deliver. They must be truly committed to the Project, and to the Project’s successful delivery. These people need to know what they are doing. In a real sense they are directing the Project but at the same time they are servants to you and your Team.

You must remember this – a Project Board appointed to just “tick a box” is worse than having no Project Board at all. With a “tick the box” Project Board we have the false impression that we’ve got the help when we need it only to find out too late that they do nothing for us.

Just do it. Put a Project Board in place and reap the benefits!

Enjoy the Journey,

Richard

Richard Morreale is a professional speaker, author, trainer, and c-suite consultant specializing in Program and Project Management, Change Management and Success Strategies. For more information or to book Richard as a speaker email him at richard@richardmorreale.com or ring him at 336 598 2793.

Project Planning – The Steps to Produce a Structured Plan

My article last week introduced Project Planning as one of the most essential steps to take in the management of your project. I wrote that next to Requirements Documentation Project Planning is the second most important thing for a Project Manager to do. I talked about what I saw as the contents of a good Plan. I also identified what happens when you don’t have a plan and mentioned that in all my audits of successful and unsuccessful projects, I found that lack of proper planning was the 2nd most reason that projects failed. I also wrote that for a plan to be accepted by all those on the project, they would have to have helped put it together. Today, I’m going to write about how to structure your planning.

So what does a structured plan look like. Well, a structured Project Plan is broken down into a number of levels. Those levels are: Level 1 – Project, Level 2 – Stages, Level 3 – Products, Level 4 – Milestones, Level 5 – Activities, Level 6 – Tasks.

In terms of the plan, the Project itself is the top level and it can be broken down into a number of sequential or slightly overlapping Stages. Each Stage can be broken down into at least one but, in almost all cases, a number of Products. Each of the Products are produced and delivered by completing a number of Activities. Some Project Plans even break the Activities down into Tasks to provide greater granularity of the work required to produce the Product. Milestones can be identified at whichever level you wish for tracking purposes. In terms of this example, I’ve established the Milestones at the Product level.

By the way, I don’t care what names you give to the various planning levels just as long as your planning is structured into logical levels. Some people might substitute the term Phases for Stages; Deliverables for Products; Tasks for Activities and Activities for Tasks. It doesn’t matter what you call the different levels as long as you pick one naming standard and stick with it. It’s not the name that’s important. The important thing is that you do it.

So, what’s the process that you go through to develop the Project Plan? Well, the Project Plan on any of the Projects I’ve managed, say over the last 30 years, was developed by following this 9-step Planning Process. The amount of time you take to prepare this plan using the steps below depend, obviously, on the size and complexity of the project. The steps are as follows:

Step	Action
1	Break the Project down into major Stages of work. A major Stage of work delivers a major product at the end of the Stage.
2	Identify the Products to be produced and delivered in each Stage. The work in each major Stage will produce at least one and maybe more than one Product.
3	Describe, in detail, the agreed content standards for each of the Products. The actual contents down to the Section, Subsection and lower, if needed for estimating, monitoring or controlling, should be documented.
4	Produce an Activity breakdown of the work required to produce each Product. Based on the contents standard, what are the Activities that need to be accomplished to produce each of the Products.
5	Organize the Activities into a ‘Dependency Network’. This network will show start and completion relationships among all of the Activities.
6	Identify planning and estimating criteria for each Activity. This is the criteria used to estimate timescales to complete an activity.
7	Assign resources to each Activity. Assign the people on your team that are available or the type of person you require. Use this to recruit or assign, as required.
8	Schedule each of the Activities using either an automated planning tool or manually. You can use a Project Management tool such as Microsoft Project or other Project Management tool you might have.
9	Smooth resources, as required, to create the most optimum schedule. Move Activities around as much as possible, within completion constraints, to smooth out the resource requirements.

This process will help you put a well-structured, comprehensive, realistic, achievable Project Plan in place.

And while you are doing all of this, remember to ‘Enjoy the Journey’

Richard Morreale is a professional speaker, author, trainer, and c-suite consultant specializing in Program and Project Management, Change Management and Success Strategies. For more information or to book Richard as a speaker email him at richard@richardmorreale.com or ring him at 336 598 2793.